The Nitrogen Cycle
Cycling is a very important step that is often overlooked. You can read more about it on the
Links page, but in a nutshell, cycling helps build up the population of beneficial bacteria that feed on fish waste, converting ammonia & nitrite into less harmful nitrate. This keeps the tank's ecosystem running smoothly. If you skip cycling, you will most likely lose fish due to nitrite and ammonia poisoning.
There are 3 ways to cycle your tank:
Using bacteria from an established tank
- This is the fastest way: just take some wet filter material (or gravel) from an established tank and add it to your tank.
- It works instantly; you can start (slowly) adding fish right away.
Cycling with fish
- This is the "old-fashioned" way of cycling; start with a couple of small, hardy fish and do frequent partial water changes (every day is best) for several weeks before adding more fish.
- You will probably lose some fish this way, since it puts a lot of stress on them.
Fishless Cycle
- This is regarded as the most humane method, if you don't have access to an established tank; it is least likely to result in dead fish.
- It requires some patience; it can take as long as four weeks.
- You will need:
- Pure ammonia (can be found at a hardware store - often called "janitorial ammonia")
- Fish food can be used instead of ammonia, although it is less accurate
- A testing kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate
- First, raise the temperature of the tank to around 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add ammonia to the water until you reach 4ppm (you can find calculators here and here to help you figure out how much to add)
- Test the ammonia level every 24 hours until it starts to drop.
- Once this happens, add more ammonia until you reach 4ppm again. Now start testing ammonia and nitrite.
- Keep adding more ammonia while testing for ammonia and nitrites. It may take a few weeks before nitrites begin to fall.
- When ammonia and nitrite readings are at 0 and nitrate appears, the cycle is complete.
- Before adding fish, do a large water change (at least 50%). Be sure to keep adding ammonia until you add fish to keep the bacteria from dying.
More detailed info on fishless cycling can be found on the
Links page.
